Let The Rain Fall
by montlake
Summary: [One-Shot] It's raining and raining hard. Lily Evans and James Potter get the chance to spend some time together and then all else follows. I think this is quite cute! 6th Yr LJ. R&R.


**Disclaimer: All Harry Potter related things belong to J.K. Rowling and all the other people who have something to do with it. Not me.**

_Well, this is quite cute, just a little Lily/James which we all love. It's set around sixth year, so enjoy. And please review. It makes me happy._

**Let The Rain Fall**

Today was a horrible day. A really _horrible_ day. The type of day you hope not to see when you take a glance out a window. It was raining so hard, I swear anybody who dared to venture out into the storm would have been washed away, if they weren't blown off first. Although, I may be a little bias considering I've always hated rainy days ever since my sister started to hate me. We have this family tradition of staying indoors and having 'family time' when it gets too wet to really do anything else. By 'family time' I mean the full deal: board games and cookies and all sorts of lame things you grow out of until you become a parent (although I still like cookies). When I was younger, rainy days were fine, I'd even say I enjoyed them, but nowadays, it basically means my parents both hopelessly trying to get me and Petunia to talk civilly to each other. If it were up to me, this wouldn't be too hard, but Petunia has a disorder where she can't seem to say anything to me with out mentioning the word 'freak' at least two times. Believe me, I've counted. Being a witch is great most of the time, but it ruined any chance of a healthy relationship with my sister.

However, I hate talking about my family, so I'll move on. I didn't even notice the weather today until Remus Lupin and Sirius Black staged a very long, very loud conversation about this weekend's Quidditch match, Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff. Sirius, who had a habit of supporting the underdog, it seemed, was convinced Hufflepuff would come out on top, and easily. I think he may also have favoured them simply because they weren't Slytherin, but I don't intend to ask. Remus, who was tactical about things like this, couldn't see how Slytherin could lose in this weather when the Hufflepuff Seeker was paranoid of rain and would be wearing god knows what to protect himself. I didn't listen to much more of what they were saying, but the gist of what I'm trying to get across is Remus mentioned the weather causing me to look outside, curious to see what 'this weather' was.

And then I saw the rain. The amazing amount of rain and wind and sticks and stones and cats and dogs blowing around the castle. And, believe me, that was all I saw. It was as thick as, well, really thick fog, not the type of weather one goes out in. So I abandoned the plans I'd had of studying outside and went to my favourite couch in the Gryffindor common room, which, as always, hadn't been taken because nobody else liked it. It was predictably red, with a yellow cushion, and looked very uncomfortable because of the lumpiness it seemed to ooze. I was not one to be fooled by appearances and knew it was perfect for somebody my size (specifically, quite petite) to sit down and get lost in. It also had a gorgeous view of the Quidditch Pitch, which, I now knew from Sirius, was being ruined by this horrible weather.

I'm the type of person who likes to dream, you see. I spent entirely too much of my precious spare time gazing out a window or into a fire. Today, what with the intriguing rain pattering down outside and nothing really better to do, I found myself spellbound, and gazing down at the world I could see through my window. For several minutes I was awed by the bareness of Hogwarts on a day like this. I watched the drops spatter against the windowsill, sometimes splashing up onto the window itself. They didn't obscure my vision, because there is some kind of complex charm on the schools windows that keeps them from getting dirty. However, to my surprise, the world was not as empty as I had hoped. A lone figure stood in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch. I hadn't noticed them until a small spark caught my eye, probably a spell, and I saw movement. Unable to make out who it was, I watched the person for a while until they collapsed onto the ground and I, naturally, became a little worried.

Being a prefect, I felt it was my duty to help the person, so I got up and walked towards the portrait hole, rather hurriedly. At around the point I was about to leave the common room and escape into the empty hallways, Remus Lupin tapped me on the back and stated blatantly, "It's raining, you know." I found this a bit of an insult to my intelligence (of _course_ it was raining) despite that I hadn't noticed until the same Lupin had brought it to my attention.

"Of course I know it's raining, I'm not blind you know," I said irritably and started to walk away, dismissing anything else he might have to say.

But Remus was not one to be shaken off that easily and called my name quietly, yet annoyingly, waiting for me to turn my attention back to him. With most people, I would have paid no heed to them, but Remus had Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, his best friends who were as tight as chopsticks, to call on, so I, albeit reluctantly, span to face him. "I just was wondering where you planned to go in this appalling weather. Wouldn't want a beautiful girl like you to catch a cold," he said innocently. All the Marauders spoke to me flirtatiously, but only because it narked me.

"There's somebody on the Quidditch Pitch and they look dead. I'm going to check it out. You really should come too, considering you're also a prefect, but you seemed to busy arguing with Black before," I said, a bit coldly, but I did really need to see if the poor person in the rain was ok. They were probably drowned by now.

"Oh, that's just James, he likes the rain. I wouldn't worry," Remus said knowingly and turned back to Sirius yelling, "She's not going to snog James, mate." That really infuriated me yet I gave Remus only a light slap on his shoulder because, as annoyed as I might have been, he was still a sweetie the majority of the time. Never the less, some first years were staring at me strangely so I resolved to go and get James off the Pitch before he caught a cold or something. After all, he was a fellow Gryffindor, in my year, and Gryffindor courage and all that basically tied me down to doing the dreadful deed.

I haven't mentioned James yet. Let's just say, I don't really like him much. I mean, I hardly know him, I suppose, but he is so galling! He bugs me like you wouldn't imagine! And, I swear, the day he speaks quietly to me, seriously to me, I will faint with shock. I will go into a coma and not come out until the real James came back, because he'd have to be possessed to do that. I mean, he may be hot and cool and athletic and all that stuff that should be attractive, but it just isn't. He's such a pighead. Meh. Stupid bastard.

But, I didn't hate him enough to let him die, you know? And imagine what everybody would say if he died because I, Lily Evans, didn't help him. It wouldn't be right, would it? And I'm a prefect, after all. Prefects have to do jobs they don't want to do, right? When it gets down to it, I cared enough about James, I suppose, to not want him to die. So it was this that found me walking across the Hogwarts grounds with only a light repelling charm to protect me from the conditions.

When I reached the Pitch I was completely drenched from when my Charm failed as a branch blew into it, cold as Iceland and in a temper. Yes, I had chosen to come out here on my own, with absolutely no pushing from James, but when you are as cold as I was, logic doesn't exactly work and I was feeling murderous towards James. I mean, who faints on the Quidditch Pitch in the middle of a storm but James? No one, that's who.

And there I was, standing in the middle of the Pitch, a place I rarely strayed to due to my lack of ability in the sport, and staring straight at James Potter, who appeared to be drinking the rain or something equally as ridiculous. James was like that, always doing crazy things. It would have been cute if he wasn't so bothersome. I was only two or three metres away from him, yet he hadn't looked up. I wondered if I should disturb him. He looked pretty alive; his tongue was wiggling around foolishly, catching raindrops. He didn't appear to be very cold, although he was wearing less than I was and I was turning blue. I did consider just walking away and leaving him there. It was kind of embarrassing; you've got to admit, to have come all the way down from the Gryffindor tower just to see if he was all right. The ideas that would give him! I'd never hear the end of it.

So, after all that, after getting myself saturated and frozen and overall just furious, I was about to walk away when James said, "Hello, Lily." And then I couldn't exactly leave when he knew I was there, so I sat down on the muddy grass, not too far from James, but not close enough for him to do anything to me without a wand (although he probably had one).

"What are you doing out here, Potter. You'll catch a cold and not be able to play Quidditch or hex people or prank or one of the other ludicrous activities you seem to enjoy," I said, wanting to make it obvious I wasn't here because I had finally decided to go out with him.

"I like the rain," he replied and stuck his tongue out again.

"Why?" I said, looking at the weather and hating every raindrop. _Just stop_, I thought, _Why can't you just go away? _I turned my gaze back to James, not wanting to think about the rain, think about my sister.

"It's just nice. Don't you like the feel of it on your skin? It's like there's nothing else, just you and the rain. I like that," he said, staring up at the sky. I was quite amazed, that was very serious for James. His black hair was flat against his head, for a change. The raindrops were running down his face, making tiny rivers round his cheekbones and his bare neck. And his gorgeous hazel eyes, usually hidden behind his glasses, were exposed. He looked ok, for James.

"I don't like rain," I said as I strengthened my repelling charm, "I only came down here because I though you were dead."

"And you cared?" James said, this time looking straight at me. He really did have nice eyes. There were beautiful flecks of gold in them that stood out against the gray, foggy sky.

"Well, of course. I'm not so horrible I want you to die, you know," I said to him, looking back at the castle. Hopefully he'd leave soon; I was going to die of frostbite if I didn't get out of the cold.

"Of course you're not, Lily, you're beautiful," he said earnestly, looking into my green eyes with genuine affection. I didn't feel comfortable. This was James Potter, the guy I avoided, the guy who annoyed me. Why was he being so amiable?

We sat there in silence for a few moments; I had nothing to say to him. I almost forgot about the rain that was still falling down as heavily as ever until my charm started to fail again. Rain makes me so distressed not even Charms, my forte, can save me. I speculated if it would be weird if I just got up and left him in the middle of the Pitch by himself. Did he mind that I was here? I could feel the water soaking into my scalp; my hair didn't work well with rain. Water turned it into a dull brown mop as opposed to the fiery red people were used to. I wondered if James had noticed.

"You look cold," he finally said, sitting up straight.

I was cold, of course, so I replied, "Well, yes, I don't know how you can stand it out here for so long. You must have been out here for half an hour, maybe more. It's a bit weird actually, maybe you're giving a cold to Remus or something, he's sick quite a lot. You could be immune to it, but he isn't and you're infecting him… It'd be interesting to find out, wouldn't it? Maybe –" At this point, he rightfully cut me off; I was rambling and we both knew it.

"Lily, I'm fine. But you're not, let's get you inside," he said, slowly getting up. How the tables had turned, I came out here to rescue him, now he was rescuing me. He offered his hand to me. Usually I would have ignored it, but I was so cold and so wet and needed help getting up from the slippery mud, so I lightly placed my pale hand on his strong brown one and he yanked me up, then gradually started to walk towards the locker rooms.

"We can wait in the lockers until this clears up a bit. There's some food in there from late night trainings and you can wear my uniform, if you want," he said gently, he was obviously trying hard to be nice. Strange… James usually just asked me out then stomped off when he was rejected. Oh well, I wasn't complaining. I just wanted to get dry. Why-oh-why did I come out here to help James Potter? Since when did he ever need help? I am stupid at times.

We reached the locker rooms quickly. James must have realized how cold I was, maybe he was afraid for my health. I do look very fragile; I'm pale and thin, although I am quite healthy, in reality. "You want my robes?" James offered, holding out the scarlet Gryffindor uniform. It looked so warm, so snuggly, but if I took them, it was getting a bit personal. Only the bimbo girlfriends of Quidditch players wore robes that weren't theirs, giggling about how close they and their man were and being unbearably boastful. But the warmth…

"Umm, if you don't," I said awkwardly, taking the robes from him, "I'll just go get changed then." I ducked behind a row of lockers and stripped down to my underwear then pulled on the dry material. All of a sudden I was so much cozier; I didn't even think about how I was wearing stupid James Potter's robes with next to nothing on underneath.

I came out from behind the lockers and James had a pile of wizard sweets (Bertie Botts Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Sugar Quills, some icky looking Cockroach Cluster, Droobles, pretty much everything) and, best of all, a few bottles of butterbeer. He looked up at me quirkily, "You should play Quidditch, Lils. Those robes look good on you." He smiled a classic James Potter '_look how charming I am'_ smile and then started on a butterbeer. I ignored his comment and sat down beside him, opening a butterbeer for myself. The familiar sensation of my whole body warming up occurred with the first sip and I felt much better, now warm and dry.

"How long do you think it'll take before we can leave?" I asked James.

"I dunno, hopefully not too long, eh?" he said, his black hair starting to stick back up again as it dried.

Another silence, but this time it felt natural, like nothing was meant to be said just then. We slowly worked our way through the sweets, until they were all but a pile of wrappers and the rain had stopped falling.

"It's stopped," I said blankly, wondering what we were going to do now.

"Yeh, we better hurry, it could be just a short break," he said, although he didn't sound like he meant it. I suppose he was enjoying this one on one time with me. Come to think of it, I was enjoying it too. However, I didn't want him to know that, so I stood up.

"What should I do with your robes?" I said, taking on a matter-of-fact manner now the ordeal was over.

"Oh, just leave them in your room or something, the house elves will put them back here," he said and stood up too then proceeded towards the exit. I was going to have to walk into the Common Room wearing his robes. What would Black think? James stood at the door, obviously waiting for me. I walked towards him and then out into the freshly washed world. I took off my already muddy shoes and started to squelch back to the castle, James right behind me doing the same.

We made it indoors and started the long climb up stairs to the tower, both staying silent until James said, "Thanks." I looked at him a strangely, thanks for what? He must have read my look correctly, because several seconds later he said, "For rescuing me, down there on the Pitch."

This caused me to look at him even more strangely. "I think I'm the one who should be doing the thanking. I would have probably frozen if it weren't for you're initiative." That was probably the nicest thing I've ever said to James and he smiled happily as I uttered it.

"You wouldn't have been down there if it wasn't for me. I should cloak myself or something, wouldn't want more pretty girls rescuing me now, would I?" he said, his usual playfulness returning to his voice. I raised an eyebrow and continued on my way. He was going to ask me out soon, I could tell.

We reached the Fat Lady and I paused, waiting for him to say it. He opened his mouth, "Wonder woman." The Fat Lady swung open and he motioned for me to climb through. I did, a little dazed that he hadn't made a move in the hours we'd been together. I entered a bustling Common Room and a burst of heat hit me. Nobody else had been stupid enough to venture out of the warmth of the fire. Several heads looked up curiously and Sirius Black came bounding over.

"YOU OWE ME 10 GALLEONS, MOONY!" he yelled, starling some nearby girls.

"We didn't snog, Black," I said as I turned towards the Girls Dorms. He appeared disappointed and looked to James for conformation. James nodded and started towards the Boys Dorm. Sirius was left standing rather stupidly by the entrance, switching his gaze between James and I in wonder.

"Don't forget to give James his robes back, Lily," he called up the stairs suggestively, "Where are your clothes anyway?" I ignored him. I'd deal with him later; right now I needed a bath. I entered my dormitory and gathered some clothes and toiletries then headed back downstairs for the Prefects Bathroom. I walked swiftly past Remus and Sirius, who were discussing James and I, and then ran through the corridors until I reached the stunning bathroom.

I whispered the password and entered an empty room. The prefects bathroom was gorgeous, one of the best things about being a prefect. While most of us couldn't be bothered to make the long trek to it every night, I was a regular, loving the elegant room. I lay my stuff down on a marble bench and ran a very hot, lavender-fragranced bath. It felt beautiful on my skin as I seeped down into the bath. I liked this kind of water, it was smooth and soft and _warm_.

There was a small window in the corner, which let an extraordinary amount of light in, and I looked up to it as I relaxed. It had started raining again. The rain made me think of James, the nice James that is, not the James who taunted me and aggravated me. Perhaps it was the weather that caused his change in personality, but I hoped not. I sat there for minutes, thinking about James, and his exquisite eyes and his messy hair, and the way he walked with the slightest bounce in his step… And then I realized, I wasn't thinking about my family. I didn't hate the rain and it was James who caused this. Now, the raindrops reminded me of our adventure, now the raindrops reminded me of him, of James Potter. And that was a good thing. James was a good thing. What a change.

_Like? Dislike? Please review, I'd love to know! _


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